Pet Interiors

Wall Street Tarot: The Contrarian

Boldly striding in while the herd is leaving. The action of the crowd is his cue to take the other side of the trade. People like, say, Steve Eisman. You get the idea.

You say zig, he says zag.

Hey, Silicon Valley: This should come in handy right about now

Since it's becoming pretty obvious that the App Economy is going to be a lamer, toothless recapitulation of the Dotcom Era, I offer Howl.com (with apologies to Allen Ginsberg). History doesn't always repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.

Bipolar Express

Trump the Cowardly Lyin'

How has this not been done yet? Oh, wait. It has. Never mind.

Relationship Advice For Aliens

Wall Street Tarot: The Fed

I am afflicted with Joseph Campbell's Disease: no matter where I am, or what I am doing, my mind tends to press things into mythological, romantic, spooky, comparative-religion-esque frameworks. I was once a young programmer: Silicon Valley Tarot; I was single in the city, once: The Metrosexual Tarot; my real job continues as a financial engineer: The Wall Street Tarot.

The Federal Reserve glowers under a cloudy and moon-lit sky, ruminating monetary policy in pursuit of stable prices and maximum employment. It takes its guidance not from the government or the electorate, but from where -- Planet Keynes? Planet Hayek? Visitors from the Friedman solar system? It is not for us to know. Mysterious authority, unseen influence, strange wisdom. Reversed: Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Beverage Issues

It's like HBO's Silicon Valley. Only older.

Back in the '90s I wrote a Silicon Valley Workplace comedy called Silicon Follies. It ran online for a while, back when people thought -- for a brief shining moment -- there would be a New Yorker for the Web. It did okay as a hardcover. Then Imagine Television made a pilot. And then the bottom fell out of the New Economy.

Timing is everything, and mine sucked. But the opening credits of the pilot are up there on YouTube. Arrested Development's Judy Greer starred. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Worst. Cover. Evar.

Comic Bardo Thodol

Birth! Death! Karma! Reincarnation! If you can't spare the time to deep-dive into a translation of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, you can take the preferred short-cut: The Comic Bardo Thodol. Browse through the levels of existence in my lurid comic format. Most importantly, it features Donald Trump as the Lord of Death, which is amazingly prescient considering I did this in 2007.

Citation in "The Tibetan Book Of The Dead: A Biography"

Cake Theology

An Oldie But A Goodie: Silicon Valley Tarot

Long before the App Economy and the social/mobile explosion there was the Dot-com Bubble, which created fertile opportunities for satire. So, I doodled the Silicon Valley Tarot from the comfort of my cubicle at a Palo Alto startup. (Remember how Big Head was "unassigned" at Hooli? Something like that.) Of course, this was before the whole concept of "going viral" was even invented, but it went viral. There was a publishing deal. They printed up thousands of decks. People wore the tee shirts. I got hit for thousands of dollars in overage costs from my ISP. Made sad-face.

Anyway. Ancient nerd humor. Enjoy.

Yes, you can buy it on Amazon